Walk About Guide to Alaska, No. 2: Chugach Mountians

Shawn Lyons is, by vocation and avocation, a person of many parts. As a professional classical guitarist, he plays dinner music every Thursday through Saturday at Villa Nova Restaurant in Anchorage. When he is not playing guitar at Villa Nova, Shawn is a part-time instructor of guitar at the University of Alaska in Anchorage where he also teaches English Composition and Literature. Shawn is also avid hiker and hill scrambler. Growing up in the Boston area, he spent his early years wandering in the White Mountains. At the age of 17, he hiked the entire length of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine and, at the age of 18, hiked the Long Trail from Massachusetts to Canada. Since moving to Alaska, he has continued to hike and climb extensively. So much that after many long hikes through many a valley and over many a summit, he has become, for some, the hiking guru of Southcentral Alaska. Nor is this all he does in the outdoors. As an ultra-athlete, he is a nine-time winner of the Iditashoe wilderness snowshoe race, and three-time winner of the 100 mile Coldfoot Classic held each year on Halloween above the Arctic Circle. Shawn’s narratives about his hikes and races often appear in a weekly hiking and climbing column that he writes for the Anchorage Daily News.